The end of lift music?

[Peter Tregear]

Actually, for that matter, did anyone ever hear Muzak in a lift?

Anyway, this is bad news for those of you who love hearing pop melodies from the 60s & 70s softened and re-orchestrated with luxuriant strings.

For the rest of us, I guess, there may be some rejoicing--though I wonder whether the iPod is really just an extreme, individualised, version of the same phenomenon--the filling of nearly all our waking ours with music. For most musicians I know, this is their version of hell!

[Friedrich Kuhlau]

Let's be honest: do we really care? Those of us who cherish music - proper music, real music, music that's not just aural wallpaper - have been deriding Muzak for years ... whether or not we've ever actually heard any. So I guess as long as we're not dancing gleefully on the company's grave (this news will mean more unemployment in tough, tough times) we can be glad that Muzak is all but dead.

Now, how best to cull inconsiderate iPod owners?

FK

[Sophie]

Muzak is not dead - it just turned into A. Rieu. I am presently being tortured by 100 - let me repeat that - one hundred - best loved tunes interpreted by his hair-ness. My flatmate seems completely unaware of the pure hell she in unleashing.
S

[Randolph]

You're right Sophie. Muzak's not dead. It metamorphosed into Andre Rieu and his galloping extravaganza. Have you noticed how all his front 'people' (thems what appear in frame when he's playing) are beautiful people and what flashing and extremely orthodonsized teeth they have. Nice hairstyles too....and I'm talking about the horses!!!

[Sophie]

It's mesmerisingly awful onscreen...

I'm not a classical music nazi - I happen to love Lounge music and the stage and screen hits of times past - it's just the wall-to-wall beige of the Rieu style which makes my ears curl.

S